Primary Navigation

Secondary Navigation

59146Re: [Authentic_SCA] Goats

Expand Messages

Despair Bear

Sep 12, 2012

Yes, one of the sayings we have here on our farm is "goats are b@stards".

In the surviving Tax records of the period goats are rarely mentioned but sheep and cattle are common place. Some researchers theorise that goats may no have been a "taxable" animal, you could not pay your taxes with goats and due to the similarities between sheep and goat skeletal structures the archeological record of goats in the early middle ages is questionable. From a personal point of view the lack of goaty evidence could also stem from the fact that "goats are b@stards", and that keeping goats is much harder than keeping cattle or sheep. Also goats require a differing diet from other ruminants (more trees and other woody plants) to thrive and so would require a differing food source than the rest of the herds. Also with a goats proclivity for breaking out of fencing the social, dietary and financial punishment from your herd of goats eating the neighbors trees would make goats less than desirable compared to sheep. Purely speculation of course
but interesting to debate on.

My only advice to anyone getting apple trees would be that goats find them to be very tasty. We lost established trees (and a 20 year old grape arbor) the first winter we had goats. They really enjoy eating the bark, which killed the trees and grapevines.
Lidia